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Marysville Severing Ties With Cal Fire After 17 Years In Cost-Cutting Move

MARYSVILLE (CBS13) — The City of Marysville will have its own fire department once again, 17 years after the city decided to essentially hand it over to Cal Fire.

Capt. Jeremy Damon has worked for Marysville Fire for nearly as long as Cal Fire has been in charge of fire operations.

"I was hoping to retire out of here, but obviously it's not the case with the city's direction that they are going," he said.

That direction will effectively end the agreement between the city and Cal Fire, which has staffed Marysville's fire station. The cost-cutting move has the city deciding it'll do better on its own.

Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mike Deme points to the challenges of starting from scratch with new firefighters rushing to a call, but unfamiliar with the roads, and the 68 square miles outside of the city limits that the department covers.

"How do you get to the river off of Plants road? Take the back road, take this road, take that road, those are the things that are going got go away and its going to be hard," he said. "Clearly someone without the experience in a community has a disadvantage from somebody who has been here and knows the community."

But Marysville City Manager Walter Munchheimer says he believes citizens won't notice a difference.

"I'm not at all concerned, and I don't think the public oughta be concerned that at the day after transition that they are somehow going to be at greater danger," he said.

For those like Damon, they'll head to other Cal Fire stations.

"It's a great city to be in, there's a lot of nice people here, and it's been fun," he said.

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